Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: High Court passes on summary judgment standard for milk conspiracy claims, (Nov 17, 2014)

By Jeffrey May, J.D.

The antitrust plaintiffs’ bar breathed a collective sigh of relief after the U.S. Supreme Court today refused to disturb a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, reversing summary judgment in favor of defendants Dairy Farmers of America, Inc., Dean Foods Company, and National Dairy Holdings, L.P. in a class action, alleging a conspiracy to restrict the supply of milk (Dean Foods Co. v. Food Lion, LLC, Dkt. No. 14-110).

The Court denied a petition for certiorari filed in August by Dean, DFA, and National Dairy. The petitioners had asked the Court to resolve a disagreement in the lower courts regarding the showing that an antitrust plaintiff must make in order to defeat summary judgment on the element of causation. In seeking summary judgment, the defendants had argued that the retailers could not establish a genuine issue of material fact on the issue of causation. Noting that courts in the Sixth Circuit were “generally reluctant to use summary judgment dispositions in antitrust actions,” the appellate court concluded that summary judgment was not warranted based on the lack of antitrust injury.

In their petition for review, the petitioners specifically asked whether, in antitrust or other cases in which the plaintiff must prove causation in fact as an element of the claim, a plaintiff must produce evidence of causation to defeat a motion for summary judgment, or whether a court may instead presume causation at summary judgment and permit the case to proceed to trial based on that presumption.

Friend-of-the-court brief. The National Association of Manufacturers and the International Dairy Foods Association jointly filed a friend-of-the-court brief, urging the Court to grant the petition and reverse the Sixth Circuit’s decision. The trade associations sought a pronouncement from the Court that there was no general disfavor toward summary judgment in antitrust cases. They contended that reversal would result in fewer “unjust settlements based on the threat of a costly and time-consuming trial with hundreds of millions—or billions—of dollars of exposure.”

Attorneys: Seth P. Waxman (Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP) for Dean Foods Co., National Dairy Holdings, L.P., Dairy Farmers of America, Inc. Richard L. Wyatt Jr. (Hunton & Williams LLP) for Food Lion, LLC. Tillman J. Breckenridge (Reed Smith LLP) for National Assn. of Manufacturers.

Companies: Food Lion, LLC; Dean Foods Co.; National Dairy Holdings, L.P.; Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.; National Assn. of Manufacturers

News: Antitrust